We went back to the world of variety--true 1970s variety in all its glory--with Donny and Marie for our fifth episode. The show was loaded with guest stars due in part to its "TV Museum" concept. We also got an homage to the Marx Brothers! Are the Osmonds Batty material? What about potential breakout star George Gobel?
Anonymous Batty insider says: "Variety hasn't exactly cleaned up at the Battys outside of the Song category. Last year at the Season 11 Battys, Sonny and Cher won a listener-voted award for Outstanding Duo but were shut out in the other categories.
The series may be hurt by all the old Donny and Marie episodes being purged from YouTube, possibly making it harder to revisit the show. Another thing to look out for is the barrage of guest stars padding the nominee count. I'm surprised that Paul Lynde buzz is kind of muted this award season. Maybe this show isn't his best shot. I don't see Donny and Marie as huge winners this year, but you never know; they could ride a wave of support led by the positive reaction to all the George Gobel talk in the episode."
A common talking point about the peak of the variety show in the 1970s is that "Everyone had a variety show" in the decade. I mean, Mike and I probably said it a few times after talking about Sonny and Cher last season and Donny and Marie this past episode.
Believe it or not, it's not the case! Yes, the existence of The Keane Brothers Show may convince you otherwise, but many celebrities of the era never got their own program.
Here's our list of 10, ranked in order of who would win if they played head to head on a neutral field in Television City, Los Angeles, California.
1) Robert Pine: 'Nuff said.
2) Herve Villechaze: Of course the show would be called HERVE! and would co-star Jeff Altman.
3) Beth Howland: Can you believe TV's Vera never had a variety show? Crazy, right?
4) Ann Jillian: You know what? Maybe this one actually should have happened. She was more a presence on stage than on screen in the Seventies.
6) Theodore Wilson: One of the coolest performers of the decade worked steadily, including regular roles on That's My Mama and Good Times, so he didn't NEED to host his own variety hour. Maybe the public needed it, though.
7) Jodie Foster: She was in tons of stuff in the Seventies, including commercial TV, series like Paper Moon, and guest shots plus even voice-over work (The Addams Family cartoon). Networks were chasing that 2-11-year-old demo even then. Why not The Jodie Foster Hour with some skits and songs?
9) Grape Ape: He shared a high-profile gig with a diverse cast on The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show. I think he could have pulled off a prime-time variety series.
I think I knew Donny and Marie from their Hawaiian Punch ads than I did their actual TV work. The commercials were on all the time, and I loved Hawaiian Punch! Or was it Kool-Aid? Or maybe Hi-C?
*Apologies for the lateness of this post this week!
*I was unable to find the exact study, but I believe research in the 1960s revealed that being rock and roll or country is not a strict all-or-nothing proposition, but that it is more of a fluid scale on which people have different degrees of rock-and-rollness and/or countryness.
*Thanks again to everyone who voted in last year's variety shows poll. If you want to listen to or revist last season's Sonny and Cher episode, click here.
*Frampton Comes Alive by Peter Frampton is a double album from 1976 that was the biggest LP of the year and remains one of the biggest-selling live albums ever. Aja, released Fall 1977, is Steely Dan's biggest album.
*Goin' Coconuts (1978), the attempt to bring the Donny and Marie magic to the big screen, was a huge flop.
*One show we do not mention on the podcast is the Rankin Bass Saturday morning cartoon The Osmonds. it ran for 17 episodes in Fall 1972. The series featured the voices of the actual Osmonds...and of course Paul Frees!
*This episode premiered Friday, September 24, 1976, on ABC. It ran 4 seasons, January 1976 to May 1979, with 78 episodes.
*Serpico lasted a half-season on NBC.Co-starring with David Birney was Tom Atkins of The Rockford Files.
*"I Just Want to Celebrate" was a #7 hit for Rare Earth 5 years earlier, but its cover of The Temptations' "Get Ready" was its biggest hit at #4.
*Peggy Fleming was a gold medalist in figure skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France.
*Art Linkletter hosted House Party and People Are Funny on TV and radio.
*The New Howdy Doody Show premiered August 1976 in daily first-run syndication but only lasted until January.
*Finally, check out this week's video playlist, with commercials, promos, theme songs, and somehow, Rip Torn!
*And remember, you can always check out our official YouTube page for all of our past podcasts and episode-specific playlists for each one!
Last season, Sonny and Cher narrowly beat out Donny and Marie in a listener poll, but we promised to cover Donny and Marie this season, and here we are! In our cutest episode to date, the brother-sister duo celebrates the history of TV with regular Paul Lynde and the likes of Milton Berle, Art Linkletter, and the one and only George Gobel! This one has everything you'd expect from a seventies variety show: celebrities, singing, dancing, "comedy"...and ice skating.
Are there too darn many Osmonds? I am not commenting on their religion, their family planning, or anything. I am just observing this 1979 Donny and Marie Christmas special and thinking, man, there are Osmonds all over the place!
The show is built around the stars Donny and Marie, of course, but then you get the B-teamers like aspiring teen star Jimmy (I confess, when he first came out on stage, partly due to the camera angle, partly due to the age of the source video, and partly due to the hairdo, I wondered if he was Billie Jean King). The other Osmond boys show up, too, and dance and sing and even act and tell jokes. We're talking Wayne and, uh...Osgood Osmond. Mordecai...Biff? I'm lost.
Then you throw in the grandkids like little Travis and Amy and...Spot? Again, I am lost. It doesn't help when we see the Osmond wives. Then some random old people come out on stage, and I think they are the Osmond parents, but, heck, I don't know for sure. I guess in 1977 everyone knew everyone in this family. Many see this kind of scene and think family is what Christmas is all about. I think, wow, they can't even face each other in one living room but need two giant ones side by side.
I don't have to tell you that the Osmonds do a lot of holiday caroling and whatnot. They get help from an array of guest stars like Erik Estrada, who enters on a motorcycle and brings his 1977 charisma if not a particular aptitude for singing "Let It Snow." He does it anyway, though, dueting with Marie in one of the show's standout numbers. Why does it stand out? Christmas is only several days away, and I am practicing goodwill!
Other guest stars come by to help out, too. Cindy Williams is game enough to appear in multiple sketches. Dorothy Hamill ice-skates all over the place, sometimes as a backdrop for a musical number. My favorite is Adam Rich, who gets a show-long storyline about assembling props for a "12 Days of Christmas" number. I am going to give away my favorite joke here. After coming up with ridiculous substitutes for items 1-8, Gunther Osmond (I think) asks where the rest of them are, and Adam says, "Where I come from, eight is ENOUGH!"
I should have seen that one coming, but it got me, and I had a genuine laugh.
I'm having a little fun with this special (though I really did enjoy that Eight Is Enough gag), but it's a great watch. The Osmonds may not be everyone's cup of nog these days, but they have undeniable charisma--some more than others, but Donny and Marie are big time here in 1979--and you get great Christmas atmosphere and a host of carols. I enjoyed Marie's wistful yet wholesome rendition of "Blue Christmas."
It's all served up with that family-friendly aura that doesn't mean only "wholesome" content, but actually depicts a large extended family celebrating together. Everyone seems to enjoy each other's company, with a few mild familial jabs here and there all in fun. It's a pleasant sight, and I am not going to research and verify all these wives and kids pictured above stayed together and remained happy forever. I am going to let it be so, at least through the holiday season. This really is the kind of show they don't make anymore, at least not in a sincere way, and I appreciate that we can enjoy it even on YouTube (Thanks, Dave's Osmonds Videos for the upload).
